Tag Archives: paint

560 Blue

560 Blue
“560 Blue” — A man walks past a blue San Francisco building in morning sunlight.

Let me start by pointing out that this is not the first time I have shared this photograph. An earlier interpretation of it exists using a different aspect ratio. I came across it again recently as I scanned through my old raw files, and I decided to take another look at it. This time I altered the aspect ratio, retaining the original 3:2, though I more typically work with 4:3. This allowed me to include the decorative rectangles at the upper right and left. In addition, as I thought more about the role of the blue color in this photograph I decided to simply remove a few elements that were dissonant with that.

The scene is a San Francisco street, and I made the photograph on one of my day trips up to “The City” by train, something that was a regular photographic event for me prior to the pandemic. I was walking up into the main downtown area from the train station, pausing along the way to photograph interesting subjects in the full morning sun across the wide street. I had already made a couple of photograph of this very blue building when I saw the man walking into the scene.

G Dan Mitchell is a California


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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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Blue Building, Evening

Blue Building, Evening
Blue building and unusual plants in evening light, Mendocino, California

Blue Building, Evening. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Blue building and unusual plants in evening light, Mendocino, California

This very blue building stands along a narrow road near the edge of a small Northern California coastal town that we visit from time to time. Late in the afternoon, as evening approached, I was out walking when I saw the building with very low angle, early evening light on these striking plants.

I look forward to the time when we can again travel to such places and spend days walking around slowly, not worrying about distance and masks and whether it is safe to stay nearby or eat at the restaurants. The fact that those things are inaccessible right now makes me hope that we appreciate them more once they come back into our lives.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Rivets and Rust

Rivets and Rust
“Rivets and Rust” — Detail of weathered and distressed steel structure on the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon

I made this photograph at about the same time as another one that I posted recently — it also featured a close-up view of the weathered structure of an old steel bridge with rivets, colorful stains, and lots of weathering.

Whether the specific location is all that important is debatable, but I made the photograph on the “Steel Bridge” (that’s actually its name), over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. This is an old and quite busy structure, and it is full of fascinating little vignettes.


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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Detail, Steel Bridge

Detail, Steel Bridge
“Detail, Steel Bridge ” — Structural detail of the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon

This might be the most unimaginatively named steel bridge in the United States — as far as I can tell it is actually called “Steel Bridge.” Which it is. The bridge crosses the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, where its double-deck structure (with a center section that can be raised) carries trains, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, and rapid transit across the water. When we visited we joined the pedestrians, which gave me a chance to look at the structure close up.

Old distressed and weathered structures like this intrigue me, and I know I’m not the only photographer who has this interest. Sometimes I imagine the contrast between some engineer crafting very careful and precise design drawings of the structure and its smaller elements, producing materials that reflect the conceptual perfection of such structures… and the real-world reality the creeps in over the long life of such structures. The latter is visible here in the multiple layers of paint, now marked by stain patterns and split open to reveal rust.


Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.